floyd miller, ceo - supplypro, inc. · floyd miller, ceo t he 1990s marked the beginning of a new...
TRANSCRIPT
Floyd Miller, CEO
T
he 1990s marked the beginning of
a new era: Industries changed the
way they functioned, organizations
dismantled their traditional business models
in search of new ones, and many countries
witnessed the dawn of a technology
revolution.
This was a positive change for
manufacturing and our society at
large; however, some were reluctant to
embrace this transition. One hold-out
was the decades-old four trillion dollars
wholesale distribution market. Many of the
organizations operating in this industry
saw this change as a looming threat to their
businesses.
But as one may think, the threat was neither
the impending recession nor the price of
commodities. It was the sudden surge of
.com craze that dominated the late 1990s.
Distributors faced disintermediation, a new
term for an old concept. But the serious
concern that failed to materialize 20 years
ago has, ironically, resurfaced as a reality
today. “Back then, the World Wide Web
reignited the wild west, today it’s IoT, AI and
Big Data enabled by the cloud.” says Floyd
Miller, CEO, SupplyPro. According to some
estimates, there were just 10,000 websites
and two million computers connected to the
internet in the 1990’s, compared to today’s
45 billion pages and roughly four billion web
users.
SupplyPro, an inventory management solution provider, set out
to leverage technological innovation to fuel change. From the
beginning of the journey, the company’s vision was to improve
the control of inventory through patented automated dispensing
systems in the cloud, even before that term for connecting users
to a datacenter was popularized.
Today, SupplyPro has become the go-to choice for customers
across the world to improve the availability, tracking and control
of their inventory to increase operational efficiency. And if one
wants to comprehend how this company spiked in popularity
in a very short span of time, we have to look back at its humble
beginning, two decades ago.
Humble beginnings
Founded in 1994, SupplyPro was born in a San Diego garage,
emblematic of the Silicon Valley start-up DNA of that decade.
SupplyPro started off its journey targeting the management
of office supplies. But its focus soon shifted to the industrial
distribution market, ultimately designing the quintessential fully
modular, extraordinarily efficient, totally scalable inventory
solution leveraging its world-class SupplySystem Intelligent
Software™. That could not only deliver varying levels of
controls across a wide variety of end-customer application,
but also enable distributors to streamline operations, improve
profitability, and deliver actionable insights for supply chain
efficiency.
The company’s evolution from a startup to the leading inventory
management solution provider is a testament to its technical
innovation and quality-driven solutions that address the
market requirements for availability, productivity, and low
Total Cost-of-Ownership(TCO). With over 1.5 million monthly
users and having processed and analyzed more than 2 trillion
inventory transactions, the company has secured a large share
of the market. Not to mention its twenty years of experience
in leveraging the cloud that continues to serve as a foundation
for ongoing innovations in advanced technologies as they
evolve. Today, customers from varied industries ranging from
aerospace, biotech, precision machining to manufacturing and
transportation employ SupplyPro’s service owing to its benefits.
When asked about the core strength of the company, Miller
says, “SupplySystem Intelligent Software™ — our cloud-based,
industry-leading inventory intelligence software — is what
makes the SupplyPro solution truly unique. SupplySystem
IS™ seamlessly integrates with the world’s leading ERP and
purchasing systems to track, control and secure inventory,
while providing advanced automation, visibility, and analytics
capabilities.”
Quality-driven Products
Inventory control has become mission-critical for businesses
across varied industries. However, businesses are often unable to
find the right inventory solution partners that can resolve their
problems. This is where SupplyPro comes in. With a wide array
of quality-driven products and full-service solutions in place,
SupplyPro helps businesses achieve their objective optimally.
“Our goal at SupplyPro is to provide a control solution at every
level for every requirement. Whether it’s a value exchange-based
platform, virtual software solution, low-cost stocking solution
or rugged cyber-secure mission-critical control device using
advanced cyber security and biometrics—we can help,” states
Miller.
Designed to deliver varying levels of control, the benefits of using
SupplyPro’s products are numerous. From single item-dispensing
for absolute control® in the SupplyBay or weight-based
SupplySystem solutions, through multiple items of the same SKU
or multi-SKU control per compartment for door level control,
SupplyPro’s solutions help businesses have complete control over
their inventories.
The company has invested millions of dollars in producing the
world’s most advanced, cloud-based inventory control software
that delivers real-time intelligence and actionable insights for
its customers. Besides adding value to customers’ businesses
through its solutions, the company also lowers operational costs,
increases productivity, reduces compliance-related risks, and
most importantly improves businesses’ bottom-line.
HELPING CUSTOMERS EMBRACE CHANGE
Today, the company’s inventory solutions serve two primary
functions. While they control the dispensing of products to users
and collect usage data for cloud-based inventory management
and analytics service, its SupplySystem Intelligent Software
manages the selection and optimization of the inventory in its
devices to efficiently automate procurement. “In tandem, they
offer our customers the lowest Total Cost of Ownership through
improved selection and productivity, increased efficiency, and
reduced inventory costs,” tells Miller.
With its passion for innovation, SupplyPro invests in and
develops innovative technologies that extend the inherent
control capabilities of a device and make them easier to use and
faster to replenish. “Our patented SecureBin® covers feature
‘Pick-To-Light’ technology which illuminates an indicator on
the drawers and compartments to identify the products a user is
permitted to access. Users can see the product they want through
a transparent cover, and then take it by pressing the Take
button on the cover to unlock it. When they close the cover, the
transaction is recorded,” explains Miller.
Building Long-Lasting Relationships with Customers
The company has built strategic relationships with customers
across a very wide range of industry sectors. As the company
is good at creating a win-win situation, both customers and
distributors benefit from extremely reliable and efficient, low-
cost, state-of-the-art solutions. While customers reduce their
inventory wastage and deepen their relationship with their
distributors by increasing purchases or extending the contract
period, distributors benefit from its SupplySystem IS software
that monitors inventory in real-time, automatically generating
orders and analyzing trends. “That means time savings from
inventory counts, order generation and replenishment — which
results in customer loyalty,” claims Miller. “And increased
profitability because the cost of ‘RUNNING OUT’ can be
astronomical.”
Moreover, the exceptional team at SupplyPro Customer Support
monitors device performance and provides training to users and
administrators to optimize the customer experience and utility.
This, in turn, enables SupplyPro to forge strong partnerships
with its customers, many of whom proudly co-market its
systems.
Unlike other companies in this sector, the company has also
developed an extremely flexible set of capabilities that can be
easily configured to meet not only the general requirements of
each industry but also the specific needs of each company within
it. For instance, the company has developed RFID tracking
within a customer facility to provide traceability of high-impact
items and document their regulatory compliance.
In another instance, a customer approached SupplyPro
requesting an inventory solution for a high number of SKU’s at a
cost much lower than traditional vending could support.
By understanding its customer’s specific requirements, the
company has developed a wide variety of both hardware and
software solutions; mobile alerts when tools are no longer
serviceable, calibration controls to lock-down tools that are
out of spec, kits that include safety items when a specific job
function is performed, MRO spares that reside at the point-of-use
to reduce downtime, and documentation and release functions to
mitigate risk.
Toward a Better Future
B2B (Business to Business) is increasingly adopting cloud-based
digital solutions and automating outdated manual processes. “As
global competitiveness continues to drive operational efficiency,
Distributors are going to have to digitally innovate and evolve
their business models to deliver increased value to their
customers. They can no longer depend on age-old relationships
to keep customers; they need to innovate by creating efficient
services and solutions.
The 21st century is defined by customers who have
unprecedented access to information that drives choices based
on consumer-driven expectations,” said Miller.
SupplyPro’s systems are enabled with IoT and integration
technologies and enable the distributor to put vital information
in the hands of their customers if they are willing to make
the investment in both money and time. In the recent past,
the company has completed the next-generation of broad-
based control solutions, delivering a mobile-enabled device
infrastructure and low-cost solutions. “SupplyMobile and our
low-cost solutions allow customers to extend the benefits of
inventory control to the approximately 95% of items not served
by traditional vending solutions. We continue to innovate
to lower the ‘cost-of-control’ curve. This includes leveraging
some very exciting new technologies and investing in talent
that can lead the next stage of industrial distribution’s digital
transformation,” tells Miller.
MAY 2019 14
SupplyMobile and
our low-cost solutions
allow customers to
extend the benefits of
inventory control to
the approximately 95%
of items not served by
traditional vending
solutions.
Going forward, the company sees enormous
opportunities in extending the benefits of
sophisticated inventory control systems beyond
the largest customers of the largest distributors, to
support manufacturing efficiency throughout the
industry at every level.
“The enormous $8 Trillion wholesale distribution
market touches almost every aspect of our economy
and is desperate for innovation. It is an extremely
exciting and untapped market for process and
technology innovations that include SupplyPro’s
current solutions and future innovations,” concludes
Miller.